Perceptions on collaboration and social networking by Mike Gotta. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own views and not those of my employer.

January 12, 2010

Helpful for social platforms based on Drupal - would like to see relevant features of Friend Connect supported within Apache SocialSite (still hopefull that this effort gains more attention and traction).

I'm happy to announce that Google Friend Connect features are now also available for Drupal and Joomla. Now that Friend Connect is integrated with these popular open source CMS platforms, site owners can make registration easier for users and offer them a set of social features -- all without writing a single line of code. Even site owners without programming experience can add these plugins.

Both Drupal and Joomla integrations include the latest Google Friend Connect features, like Interest Polls, AdSense, Newsletter Subscriptions, Featured Content, and well-known gadgets such as Members, Comments, Recommendations, Activities, Reviews and the Social Bar. When a user joins a Friend Connect site, an account is created and automatically associated with his or her external account of choice (Google, Yahoo, or Twitter, for example). The social gadgets can be placed anywhere in the site using the standard Drupal and Joomla administration interfaces. Site owners can moderate reviews and comments, create new polls to collect information about community members, and then advertise on the site using that information. The newsletter feature allows site owners to create and manage their newsletters using Friend Connect's interface, and site members can subscribe and unsuscribe as desired using the newsletter gadget.

July 13, 2009

Google announced an open-source effort to improve the real-time notification capabilities of feed syndication:

Real-Time Product Launch Recap - Digital Life Blog - InformationWeek

Pubsubhubbub - This one comes from Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and is very technical but the basic idea is any RSS feed using FeedBurner will now be updated nearly instantly whereas previously there was a delay in feed updating. It's built on the "pubsub" protocol and a variety of open-source clients have been created to allow applications that need feed data to receive it in a near real-time capacity. Google has created a wiki to discuss the Pubsubhubbub release.

A simple, open, server-to-server web-hook-based pubsub (publish/subscribe) protocol as an extension to Atom.

Parties (servers) speaking the PubSubHubbub protocol can get near-instant notifications (via webhook callbacks) when a topic (Atom URL) they're interested in is updated.

The protocol in a nutshell is as follows:

An Atom URL (a "topic") declares its Hub server(s) in its Atom XML file, via <link rel="hub" ...>. The hub(s) can be run by the publisher of the Atom, or can be a community hub that anybody can use. (RssFeeds are also supported!)

A subscriber (a server that's interested in a topic), initially fetches the Atom URL as normal. If the Atom file declares its hubs, the subscriber can then avoid lame, repeated polling of the URL and can instead register with the feed's hub(s) and subscribe to updates.

The subscriber subscribes to the Topic URL from the Topic URL's declared Hub(s).

When the Publisher next updates the Topic URL, the publisher software pings the Hub(s) saying that there's an update.

CommunityEquity

The second half of Friday was dedicated to discussing the Sun Use Case, and the technologies and services we would need to integrate there to support the already existing SunSpace intranet. We agreed that it was unreasonable and unrealistic to expect that Sun would replace the existing Confluence installation in favor of KiWi, because the aim of KiWi cannot be to create yet another Wiki engine that competes with what is already there. Instead, in the SunSpace use case, the KiWi system will be more like an intelligent index that integrates content and data from already existing sources and offers additional value in the form of advanced services (e.g. search, tagging, …) and widgets that can be included on the user interface level (e.g. recommendations, tagging, metadata, …). The data integration will make use of existing technologies like Linked (Open) Data. We decided that we would contribute particularly to the update mechanism of Linked Data since this seems to be an issue that is yet not resolved.

A second major point of discussion was the integration of Sun’s Community Equity (CE) with KiWi. We decided that we would head for a rather tight integration at the EJB level rather than at the Web Service level, because then we will be able to use CE more easily for e.g. recommendation and search. This integration will take place until end of August.

Finally, we briefly discussed single sign on for KiWi and correspondingly, Henry’s suggestion for FOAF+SSL, which Steffi has already mostly implemented in KiWi. Also, an issue still to be solved for the SunSpace Use Case is how to handle permission management in KiWi.

We closed the meeting on Friday afternoon. Most said it was the most productive KiWi meeting we had yet and that we have moved much forward. I just hope that we can also hold the pace.:-)

FOAF+SSL is a authentication and authorization protocol that links a Web ID to a public key, thereby enabling a global, decentralized/distributed, and open yet secure social network. It functions with existing browsers.

Based on well known and widely deployed standards, FOAF+SSL and its implications is being discussed on the FOAF protocols mailing list. Other implementations of this conceptual protocol will probably retain SSL in the mix, but FOAF may be replaced by any of several other vocabularies.

KiWi – Knowledge in a Wiki is an EU-funded project (No 211932) combining the wiki philosophy with methods of the Semantic Web, aiming to develop a new approach to knowledge management.

The main outcomes of the project will be

an enhanced wiki vision (the "KiWi vision") describing how the "convention over configuration" paradigm of wikis combined with semantic technologies can lead to flexible and problem-oriented knowledgemanagement,

a collaborative, web-based environment (the "KiWi system") that provides support for knowledge sharing, knowledge creation, and coordination in software and project knowledge management,

the evaluation of this system in two concrete, representative use cases at our industry partners,

the "KIWI handbook", describing the project vision, the KiWi system functionalities, as well as giving recommendations and best practices for using the system in concrete knowledge management scenarios.

The KIWI consortium brings together leading research groups (Salzburg Research, Aalborg University, Brno University of Technology, LMU Munich) in the areas of semantic wikis, reasoning, information extraction, personalisation, and knowledge management for software processes. These are matched by two large international corporations in knowledge intensive areas (Sun Microsystems and Logica) that offer use cases demonstrating a clear need for the advanced knowledge management we envision in the project, and by a SME (Semantic Web Company) specialised in the dissemination of semantic technologies to the industry.

February 13, 2008

This was obvious since the OEM agreement last year. I remain skeptical. On paper, this can be viewed as being "conceptually perfect" - SiteScape has always been noted in the industry for having powerful functionality but for a variety of reasons, the platform never gained large market traction or mindshare. Novell, with its Groupwise platform, was once a collaboration powerhouse alongside IBM and Microsoft back in the nineties. But again, for a variety of reasons, the Groupwise platform has lost market traction and mindshare - at least in the medium-to-large enterprise space that I am familiar with.

ICEcore - an open source effort - has seen little activity at all. It's tough to imagine developers getting excited about an open source effort to improve a platform that is already feature-rich. When I think about this open source effort compared to Zimbra or others it still seems very much in the back of the pack.

Novell partners with someone in need of collaboration technology (my best guess would be perhaps Cisco and its WebEx Connect efforts)

Novell develops a consumer/SoHo/small business angle here similar to other hosted offerings such as Basecamp, Huddle, etc.

Consider integrating with Google Apps

February 13, 2008: Novell Delivers Open Collaboration with SiteScape Acquisition

Novell today announced it has acquired SiteScape, a leader in open source team collaboration, extending Novell's leadership in, and commitment to, innovative and open collaboration solutions. SiteScape, the founder of the ICEcore open source collaboration project, brings impressive team workspace and real-time collaboration capabilities to Novell – key components of a broad unified communications and collaboration strategy. The melding of the two firms creates the industry's clear leader in open, enterprise-strength collaboration and social networking offerings, giving customers powerful, flexible ways to integrate new communications technologies into their environment and drive employee productivity and business innovation.

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Founded in 1995, SiteScape provides collaborative solutions for communication and management for distributed teams across a wide range of business and government customers. SiteScape's integrated Web-based solutions support knowledge management, project management, communities of practice, telework, business and government continuity, and many other workflow-driven functions. Long a leader in enterprise e-mail with GroupWise®, Novell partnered with SiteScape in 2007 to add to its collaboration portfolio with Novell® Teaming + Conferencing, a team workspace and real-time conferencing solution centered on the ICEcore open source technology. Consistent with Novell's commitment to interoperabilty, Novell Teaming + Conferencing runs on both Linux* and Windows*, and works with Lotus Notes* and Microsoft Exchange*, in addition to GroupWise. These team workspaces, accessible securely by team members both inside and outside the company, incorporate multiple integrated collaboration tools, including blogs, wikis, instant message, chat, voice over IP and web conferencing, providing the powerful core of a unified communications and collaboration solution. By now acquiring SiteScape, Novell strengthens its commitment to the technology, gains the flexibility to create the solutions customers and partners need, and increases its capacity to deliver even more innovation and interoperability around open collaboration.

Novell has entered an OEM licensing agreement with SiteScape (www.sitescape.com) – an innovator in software that integrates team workspaces with presence-based, real-time collaboration – to offer these new products. The Novell offerings are expected to be available later this year, and product names will be announced at a later date.

October 25, 2007

Too bad... hopefully the open source effort will continue and gain some market traction.

Discontinuing commercial offerings

Much to our regret, we must inform you that the company Mindquarry will stop providing commercial services and products. We could not convince our investor to keep financing our endeavour.

The Mindquarry GO and Mindquarry PRO products will be discontinued as of today. Our Open Source product will remain publicly available (see below for more information).

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Keeping our Open Source software alive

Our developers team is currently working on finishing the Mindquarry 1.2beta release, which will be available around end of October. Beginning with 1.2beta, Mindquarry source code will be hosted on Sourceforge as well as the mindquarry.com Web site. Hence, our software as well as all necessary information such as installation documentation and forum discussions will still be available. Further details and links will be available in the next and probably final Mindquarry community newsletter.

October 03, 2007

The web conferencing market is an interesting space to monitor. I've covered this area since 1996. The market remains dominated by a hosted model with WebEx/Cisco and Microsoft as the top providers. Other recognized players in the hosted space include Adobe, Citrix, Genesys, Intercall (e.g., Raindance) and WebDialogs (recently acquired by IBM). Carriers often package and resell services from these vendors (note: AT&T just acquired Interwise). The on-premises market remains fragmented. There are e-learning/virtual classroom deployments (e.g., Centra, iLinc, Interwise are common) and some enterprise-wide deployments (IBM Sametime, Adobe Connect and vendors that are expanding beyond e-learning). There are at least 80 some-odd vendors in the space overall, including situational vendors that focus on specific applications - like Glance Networks, or those that extend IM/VoIP platforms like Skype (WebDialogs has been successful in that regard). There are many pricing options - some are pay-as-you-go, others are subscription-based and there are free services as well. Overall, the market is under tremendous downward pricing pessure indicating that services will get cheaper over time.

Large enterprises are not making a web conferencing decision - they are increasingly making a unified communications decision. I do not see much uptake at all actually concerning open source for web conferencing - unlike IM where I do see some deployment of Jiver and Jabber (Jabber is more open standard than open source though). So I don't see DimDim being all that successful for on-premises deployment within large enterprises. For the SMB market, hosted offerings will likely continue to dominate - there are just too many options and I doubt DimDim will get enough brand awareness and visible presence to have any significant market share anytime soon. Security and compliance demands may also come into play when organizations choose a provider.

There may be an opportunity for DimDim to be used within a package and resold (say by a carrier/telco) - perhaps there might be some interest within government sectors and emerging markets where established vendors in this space have not defined themselves. But overall, I would pass for now and revisit open source and DimDim in 18 months or so.

Dimdim Challenges WebEx, Microsoft

Dimdim, a Burlington, MA.-based web meeting services startup, wants to take on Cisco Systems’ (CSCO) WebEx and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Placeware by emphasizing simplicity and ease of use. The company, which is backed by investors including Draper Richards, Index Ventures and Nexus Capital India, launches its service today at DEMOfall 2007. Co-founded by Computer Associates alumni DD Ganguly and Prakash Khot, Dimdim has so far raised $2.5 million.

The service allows you share your desktop and files, and to IM, talk, and broadcast using your webcam. Dimdim is using Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud service to operate its service, and says its software is open source.

The service utilizes Adobe’s (ADBE) Flash 9 plugin for all of the multimedia apps. I gave the Dimdim service a brief spin and was impressed by its stripped-down simplicity and the speed with which it loaded into the browser, especially when compared to WebEx’s long startup process.

But that doesn’t mean WebEx (acquired by Cisco Systems for $3.2 billion) has anything to worry about right now, for Dimdim is still a work in progress. Its interface needs tweaking; in fact, it needs to be livened up. After all, web meetings can be fun. too. Nor was I clear as to how secure my information was going to be or where, exactly, all the files that I uploaded went. But I’m sure they will resolve all these issues soon.

This is a competitive market, and it’s going to get even more competitive. Sooner or later, Google (GOOG) is going to enter with its own twist on web conferencing, as WWD’s Anne Zelenka has pointed out. If Dimdim hopes to truly establish itself, it will have to focus relentlessly on “user experience.”

Open source startup DimDim has released an alpha version of their new browser based web conferencing software. Users download the open source free code and install it on their own servers. The current version supports IE on Windows only for presenters, which is really unfortunate, but attendees can be in conference via Firefox on Mac. No software download is required for attendees. Future versions will fully support Firefox on Mac, Linux and Windows. If the software ends up solid then DimDim could pose an interesting challenge to the current list of paid, hosted web conferencing solutions.

October 02, 2007

If the general inclination of the CXO-crowd is to buy from larger, established vendors, then does SpikeSource represent a credible channel for independent vendors and open source projects? In one model (e.g., Alfresco, Drupal), the result is a packaged solution on top of an underlying server platform. In the other model (e.g., SuiteTwo), multiple products are integrated into a packaged platform solution that is broader than what each vendor could achieve independently. It's an interesting approach and one I'll continue to track (in the areas I cover).

As the inventory of solutions becomes more diverse, some questions that SpikeSource will need to address will be:

How does SuiteTwo integrate with the Alfresco and Drupal solutions? (Customers might expect that they will/should coming from the same "packager")

Can I swap out a component of SuiteTwo in favor of one of the other solutions (Customers might expect to mix-and-match)?

Can I include Alfresco or Drupal in a "SuiteTwo Extended" package?(Customer might expect to design their own builds)

Recent Press Announcements

09/25/2007

Redwood City, CA. – September 25, 2007 – SpikeSource, a provider of packaged and maintained open source solutions, today released a new SpikeIgnited™ version of the Alfresco Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solution. This new SpikeIgnited version of Alfresco, based on Alfresco Enterprise Edition, is SpikeSource’s second solution released this quarter that has been tested and certified for Microsoft Windows Server.

Redwood City, CA. – August 6, 2007 – SpikeSource, a provider of enterprise-class open source solutions, today announced a new version of the company’s popular Web 2.0 integrated software platform, SuiteTwo.

Redwood City, CA. – July 26, 2007 – SpikeSource, a provider of business-ready open source applications, today announced plans to work together with Microsoft Corp. to certify all of SpikeSource’s SpikeIgnited solutions on the Microsoft Windows platform.

Redwood City, CA. – June 18, 2007 –SpikeSource today announced the release of a hosted version of SuiteTwo, powered by Intel, a turnkey appliance that allows organizations large and small to implement leading Web 2.0 technologies that increase revenue, reduce expenses, improve productivity and extend brand.